Technological Field
The present invention relates to an image processing device, and an operation control method thereof.
Description of the Related Art
With the progress of voice recognition technologies, voice operation of inputting a voice instruction by a user is put to practical use in various apparatuses. In general, at the time of voice operation, a user presses a vocalization button (microphone icon), or emits fixed form words for talking to an apparatus, and consequently the apparatus is brought into an instruction waiting state. After that, the user emits instruction words.
Meanwhile, image processing devices such as a copy machine, a facsimile machine, and a Multi-functional Peripheral (MFP) (multifunctional machine or complex machine) are each provided with an operation panel for contact-type operation. In general, not only hard keys such as a start key and a stop key, but also a touch panel display that allows various operations, are arranged on the operation panel. In a case where complicated operation is performed, in particular, for example, in a case where a user wants to execute a job that includes many items to set, the contact-type operation is more efficient than the voice operation.
Incidentally, after a user inputs a desired job into an image processing device, while the image processing device executes the job, there is a possibility of causing a situation in which the user notices a setting error of the job, and accordingly wants to stop the operation of the image processing device. In this case, instantly pressing a stop key on the operation panel can avoid a trouble. However, if it takes a long time until the stop key is pressed, processing of the job steadily progresses during this time. As the result, for example, printing may be uselessly performed, or image data may be transmitted to a wrong destination.
As the prior art, technologies for quickly stopping the execution of a job are disclosed in JP 2010-136335 A and JP 2017-32844 A.
JP 2010-136335 A discloses an image forming device in which when a spoken voice as the operation by a user is recognized, an operating state is changed to a stopped state.
JP 2017-32844 A discloses a copy machine in which after processing is started, in a case where a predetermined voice is detected during a predetermined time period, the processing is interrupted.
According to the technology disclosed in JP 2010-136335 A, a voice instruction to stop is always accepted during the execution of a job. Therefore, there arises a problem that there is a large possibility of misrecognizing a voice, in other words, there is a possibility of easily causing a situation in which the operation will be stopped by mistake. Thus, completion of the job is delayed due to useless stop that is not intended by a user, and consequently the productivity of image formation decreases.
The technology of JP 2017-32844 A is based on the knowledge that as time passes from the start of processing, the significance of interrupting the processing often decreases. Therefore, the timing in which a voice instruction to interrupt is accepted is limited within the predetermined time elapsed from the start of the processing. As the result, accidental interruption caused by misrecognition of a voice can be suppressed
However, the timing in which the user notices an error of the operation in which the job has been set differs depending of a kind of the job.
For example, a copy job that reads images from sheets of original document, and then prints the images on sheets of paper includes: group copy that prints an image of each sheet of original document in units of a plurality of sheets in the order of reading; and sorting copy that repeats the operation of printing an image of each sheet of original document on one sheet of paper in the order of reading to make a plurality of copies.
As an example of operation errors, assuming a case where the number of copies is larger than the number of desired copies (including a case where settings of the previous job remain), the timing in which a user notices an error is considered in the following manner.
In the case of the group copy, after reading of an image ends, printing is started, and until printing of an image of the second sheet of original document starts, a user often notices an error.
Meanwhile, in the case of the sorting copy, after printing of the desired number of copies has been completed, when printing of subsequent copies is started, a user often notices an error.
In this manner, the timing in which the user notices an error of the operation in which the job is set differs depending on a kind of the job. Moreover, even if the kind is the same, the timing is earlier or later depending on conditions of the job, including the number of sheets of original documents, and the number of copies.
Therefore, if acceptance of a voice instruction is stopped in a stage in which a fixed period of time has passed from the start of the job, there is a possibility of causing a situation in which a user cannot stop the operation by a voice even if the user notices an error.